Melanie Phillips: The ominous subtext of Nazanin's release

Is it a sign that the US really is about to turn the west itself into Iran’s hostage?

The British-Iranian woman Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who has been incarcerated in Iran for nearly six years on trumped-up charges of sedition, is back in the UK.

On a personal level, this is truly wonderful news. Her arrest and detention were unspeakable, with the Iranian regime playing cat-and-mouse with her during the years of negotiations for her release.

Melanie Phillips: The new administration's words fit awkwardly with its roll-call of Obama retreads

Can leopards change their spots? Or to be more pertinent, can those who put Israel, the west and the world in such danger through the Obama administration’s 2015 nuclear deal with the Iranian regime now accept that what they did was catastrophically wrong?

Can such people, who at best never understood what Israel needed to ensure its security or, at worst, actually supported those bent on its annihilation, stop speaking simultaneously out of both sides of their mouths, accept the need to treat Israel as a valuable ally and finally do what is actually needed to keep it safe?